


Space Oddity A.R.K.

by lancelhog



Series: Space Oddity A.R.K. [1]
Category: Sonic the Hedgehog (Video Games), Sonic the Hedgehog - All Media Types
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, But also, Character Study, Doctor Maria Robotnik, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Light-Hearted, Other, Pining, shadmari if you squint, ships are more like character dynamic exploration really, subtle sonadow
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-31
Updated: 2020-12-31
Packaged: 2021-03-11 02:35:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 11,767
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28457664
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lancelhog/pseuds/lancelhog
Summary: It’s been a chill year since Eggman retired but it’s already time for a new adventure to barge in Sonic and co.’s otherwise uneventful lives. This time though, the challenge comes from above.Canon divergence AU where Maria Robotnik survived instead of her grandfather, and the rebranded Space Sanctuary descends to Earth some time after the events of SA1. Dr Maria and her inseparable Ultimate Lifeform companion are determined to save humanity from its own corrupt organizations and decadence, but does this righteous goal justify any means to achieve it? How will life on the blue sphere change the convictions they have so firmly held until now? What an oddity, this timeline that could have been...Main storyline of the Space Oddity A.R.K. alternate universe. More info: https://spaceoddityark.carrd.co/
Relationships: Knuckles the Echidna/Rouge the Bat, Maria Robotnik & Shadow the Hedgehog, Shadow the Hedgehog & Sonic the Hedgehog
Series: Space Oddity A.R.K. [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2084397
Comments: 2
Kudos: 12





	Space Oddity A.R.K.

**Author's Note:**

> Sonic team (mostly Sonic’s) POV: ════ ⋆★⋆ ════  
> Shadow’s POV: •·······◥◈◤·······•

_ Far above the world _

_ Planet Earth is blue _

_ And there's nothing I can do _

•·······◥◈◤·······•

“Nightmare?”

A soft voice pulled Shadow out of his uneasy slumber. He opened his eyes with a jolt, with his own screams still reverberating inside his head. He was greeted by the familiar sight of his room, all lights dimmed so he could rest more at ease. The Ultimate Lifeform barely slept but he dreaded the hours he needed to. At best, unconsciousness made him feel vulnerable, and it reminded him of non-existence, if that made any sense; the Void before Creation. At worst, he found his dreams plagued by nightmares.

They were usually the same, too. His mind went back many years, to the smell of gunpowder and blood clotting the A.R.K.’s metal floors.

“I still have them too,” the voice seemed to have heard his thoughts. Only this time, the dream had taken a different turn.

But Shadow, sitting up and rubbing the sleep off his eyelids, shook his head.

“This dream wasn’t like the others. I was powerless. I stood there and did nothing… I couldn’t…”

Shadow closed his hands into tight fists as he tried to imagine, if only for a fleeting moment, how sorrowful a life without Maria would have been. He found out he couldn’t.

Instead, his mind drifted to a point in the not-so-distant past, when Maria had fallen ill to a fever. She had spent several days in the A.R.K.’s intensive care unit, barely conscious, shivering and calling out for him in the dark. The thick glass window isolating her from the rest of their small, metallic world, prevented even his keen hearing sense from catching her faint words, but he could read her lips. For the first time since GUN attacked, he had felt true terror creep up his spine as he watched helplessly from the other side of the glass. A view that shared some similarities with his nightmare. Eventually, her condition had gotten better. The first successful test using a blood sample of hers had come soon afterwards. Even so, Shadow’s fear of loss still lingered within.

And losing her in the dream had subjected him to a sharp sting in his chest, as if he had truly witnessed the event. It had felt so disturbingly real…

He picked up a pair of pristine white gloves from a near surface and slid them down his fingers slowly, letting his heart recover its pace. Maria’s voice rose once again behind him.

“You weren’t powerless, Shadow. You have never been such a thing,” she almost giggled at the idea. “Even if you couldn’t save everyone. And you saved  _ me _ .”

The hedgehog turned around, adjusting the gloves under the golden rings around his wrists, and looked at the petite silhouette at the doorstep with a half-smile. Her presence had a soothing effect in him, and he let her speech wash over his anguish, completely lifting it off his shoulders.

“Grandfather would be so proud of us… Everything he had dreamed of, we’ve built here, and more. And now, we’re finally ready.”

Maria rewarded him with a smile of her own, just as sweet as she was herself, but her voice came out with a firmness one wouldn’t have expected from her, with unbreakable resolution. Her tone betrayed her true age and a certain bitterness hidden underneath her dainty appearance, like a tumultuous river running under a layer of impassive ice.

“Space Sanctuary A.R.K. will commence descent to a lower orbit shortly. Then we will deploy Air Recon Unit 1 and from there, the first scouting mission.”

Shadow followed her and both walked up to the immense window, gazing at the bright blue planet from above. He couldn’t see Maria’s eyes behind the crimson glass of her goggles, but he didn’t need to. Her expression, while unreadable to anyone, was an open book for him. The bonds they had forged throughout half a century went far beyond the physical one that flowed in their veins.

“It’s just the two of us here,” said Shadow. “You don’t have to give me an official debriefing.”

Maria looked at him and her shoulders relaxed with a deep sigh, but felt no need to speak any further. The two figures stood side by side against the vast space that their horizon was, watching the white clouds swirl on the surface of the blue orb below. 

•·······◥◈◤·······•

“ _ Well. This is it, Shadow. Are you ready? _ ”

Shadow adjusted the small comm device around his head. A drift of cold wind rustled his black fur. “I was created ready.”

“ _ I know _ ,” Maria sighed somewhere in the control room, directly into his ear. “ _ Just be careful, please _ .”

The hedgehog couldn’t help but sniffle. “Remember who you’re talking to, Doctor.”

“ _ That’s exactly why I’m afraid! _ ” He could see her in his mind, shaking her head side to side. Caution and prudence had ruled most of her life with an iron fist, and they were tough to shed. But the time to take risks had arrive and, luckily, she had Shadow yearning to take them. Chaos energy tingled on his fingertips as he inspected the silent world below the platform he was standing on, a retractable extension of Air Recon Unit 1. The massive flying fortress had abandoned the A.R.K. and descended into the blue planet’s atmosphere until it was close enough to its surface to be able to send robot-operated probes as scouts, as well as a certain alien hybrid lifeform, but far enough from the Earth’s defenses so they could scan and neutralize them in time. Still, it was a considerable fall from up there. Shadow leaned over the very edge of the platform and forced himself to look down. He would have died before acknowledging the fact openly but, in truth, he found the enormous vertical sight, intensified by the strong pull of the Earth’s gravitational field, nothing short of imposing.

“I’ll be fine,” he said out loud, as if to convince his conversation partner of it rather than himself. “Initiating scout mission.”

He didn’t wait for the transmission confirmation buzz, and simply took a few steps back, built up some momentum, and dived.

Surrounded by a thin but efficient shield of humming Chaos, Shadow fell through layers and layers of thick white clouds  —  that, surprisingly enough, weren’t thick at all when one transited them. It was strange to feel the friction around him become heat and, at the same time, have ice-cold wind whistle in his ears and cut into his protective barrier like a thousand knives. He ground his teeth and tried to focus on the scenery where he was about to make his landing, but the speed of his fall made it impossible to analyse. When his calculations and, most importantly, his instinct, told him to, he closed his hands into tight fists, released a big blast of energy and braced himself for impact.

The dust began to settle around him soon, and with the sound of the crash still ringing in his head Shadow stood up and scrutinized the environment. At the same time, his communicator started whirring.

“ _ Shadow? Are you alright? _ ”

When he parted his lips to answer, he broke into a short coughing fit. The cold air and dust had dried his throat. “I’m good,” he managed to say, although it probably didn’t sound as convincing as he’d wanted it to. He patted his riding suit and shook his quills, combing them with his hands while crimson eyes watched the landscape intently.

“I can sense a weak pulse of Chaos energy,” he told Maria. “There must be something nearby…”

“Hell yeah there is!” A cocky voice rose behind him, far enough not to be a threat but close  — and unexpected  — enough to startle him. The black hedgehog turned around, to find…

… what could only be described as a remarkable replica of himself staring at him from a small mount. The  _ other  _ hedgehog was standing there, indigo blue fur and quills, arms akimbo, peach-colored chest puffed out, ears pointed in Shadow’s direction, same as his fiery green eyes. A more detailed examination lead Shadow to the conclusion that the stranger wasn’t as similar to him as he had initially thought  — his quills were curved downwards, and the color of his fur, strikingly brighter than his own  — , but the overall resemblance was undeniable. Before Shadow could say anything, the other one took the floor, quite literally, as he jumped off the mount and approached Shadow, crossing his arms over his chest.

“You don’t look too outlandish or menacing for a guy that just fell from a giant spaceship so I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt, but you better start talkin’ real fast,” he said.

The darker of the two couldn’t help but stay mute. Within the extensive mental list of things he had expected for a first contact with an Earthling, having his presence snubbed as ‘non-menacing’ was nowhere to be found. His counterpart’s nonchalant attitude felt, if anything, a bit insulting; his demand for an explanation, ludicrous. Just who did he think he was dealing with?

Inadvertently, Shadow adopted a defensive stance, knees slightly bent forwards, back quills stiff. The blue hedgehog noticed and, strangely enough, relaxed his own.

“Don’t worry, I mean no harm,” he lifted his hands. He was wearing a pair of white gloves. “I just wanna make sure you don’t, either.” He managed to sound softer, warmer. But Shadow’s strong points were hardly in the field of socializing and reading others, and as a consequence he wasn’t quite sure what to make of it.

With his lips pressed into a thin line, Shadow decided to bring the conversation over to his side, to stay in control. “State your name.”

The other didn’t seem to be bothered by his brazen tone, and replied with a wide smile and an extended hand.

“I’m Sonic, Sonic the hedgehog. Fastest thing alive.”

Shadow raised a brow. He looked briefly at Sonic’s hand, but didn’t move a muscle to meet it with his. When it was clear there would be no use for formalities, Sonic let out a sigh.

“Off to a great start, already.”

Perhaps it was his directive to gather intel, perhaps it was Sonic’s dejected look that prompted Shadow to comply.

“I’m Shadow.”

“Nice to meet you, Shadow the hedgehog.” Sonic’s smile widened, as if it was some kind of accomplishment to exchange even the hollowest set of words with a stranger. Ridiculous. Shadow noticed Sonic was inspecting him too. His green eyes darted from what he guessed were the sharp ends of his black and red quills, to the metal finishing of his jet boots. Something stirred inside Shadow.

“I’m no ordinary hedgehog,” he let his dark eyelids fall. “And you’re most definitely not the fastest thing alive.”

Sonic’s foot tapped into the ground, his happy-go-lucky attitude now replaced by annoyance. “Huh? What makes you say that? And what are you, if not a hedgehog?”

“Sonic! We’re here!” A strange silhouette approached them from a distance. It was a yellow fox, using his two tails? to fly around. He was carrying a bright red creature, another hedgehog, maybe, along the way. Sonic switched his attention to the two newcomers for a moment.

Conveniently at the same time  —  or likely as a product of Maria’s surveillance of the scene  — Maria’s voice came out of Shadow’s earpiece, only within his hearing range. “ _ Shadow, there’s still a terrain reconnaissance mission to carry out. If you’re unsure of the result of this encounter, I suggest-” _

“I know,” he replied. “I’ll deal with this in no time and go search for the coordinates.”

“ _ Don’t get into too much trouble _ .”

By the time their conversation was done, Sonic had once again diverted his emerald look to his black peer, now backed by two of what Shadow presumed were his acquaintances. The fox looked younger than the rest of them; the other one, whose species Shadow didn’t recognize, looked tougher. In front of them, the blue hedgehog tried to resume their little dialogue.

“I said-”

“I am Shadow, the Ultimate Lifeform. And now that I’m here,” the slightest of smirks tugged at the corner of his mouth, letting a small white fang to be seen, “you’re not the fastest thing alive anymore. Now, if you’ll excuse me...”

Commanded by his very thoughts, like just another muscle group he could contract at will, Shadow’s chaos-powered jets roared and he propelled himself far from the group, leaving a trail of dust behind.

The feeling of running across the limitless, vast green countryside was nothing like the treadmills and corridors of the A.R.K. Fresh, humid air rushing through his fur, carrying dozens of different scents, all brand new; the chirping of birds, the soft rummage of the foliage caressed by the wind, they all accompanied his swift movements through the tall grass, changing and morphing into one another, but in any case vastly different from the cold reverb of his steps on brushed metal floors.

However, he barely had a few seconds to enjoy it, as he soon caught a troublesome blue smear from the corner of his eye, bridging the gap between the two at astonishing speed. Shadow couldn’t help but smirk, and channeled even more Chaos energy down to his jets.

_ [GAMEPLAY: Lavender Heights] A fairly straightforward level. Meadows and hills, green and violet, against a bright, cloudy morning sky. The player controls Shadow and has to race Sonic, reaching certain control points before he does, including the one at the end. _

The sound barrier shattered at the same time Shadow and his unexpected opponent dashed forward and left the lavender fields behind in a blur. They entered a tall grass area, peppered with white rock massifs that stuck out from the earth like sharp blades, forcing the racing hedgehogs to make equally sharp turns to avoid hitting them. There was something about the challenge, about covering a surface plagued with obstacles with someone capable of keeping his pace, that made it different from everything else Shadow was used to doing when running. This time the goal wasn’t to retain peak physical form or outrun a pursuer, and the terrain survey he was supposed to conduct had been eclipsed by the tinge of excitement of having met a match worthy of such designation. There was only the wild nature of a vast world yet to explore, and the adrenaline rush of one-upmanship. It was unlike anything Shadow had experienced before.

The darkest of the two contenders used the slight advantage he had — and was about to lose — to dig his heel into the soft earth. Grabbing onto a ledge of stone with his gloved hand, he made an abrupt change of direction, then went on running completely perpendicular to his former track and parallel to the white cliffs they had reached. A movement Sonic had clearly not expected, for Shadow saw him a glimpse of his eyes wide before his new angle of vision made him lose sight of his rival. Making the most of that moment of bewilderment, the hybrid pressed a button on his ear comm and clenched his jaw for a last high-octane sprint, a certain puerile gratification tugging at the corner of his lips.

He brought his run to a halt right at the edge of one of the cliffs, the highest one in his surroundings and also the one that protruded from the coastline the most. A small white pulpit suspended above dark grey waves. Shadow wiped a single droplet of sweat off his forehead with the back of his hand. He’d have to grow used to the planet’s strong pull before he could reach his full potential, something the hedgehog welcomed with an open heart. At least, he thought, he confronted a situation that demanded actual effort from him, the pushing of his apparently still existing boundaries.

Fractions of a second later, that blue annoyance joined him, casting a small cloud of pulverized dirt and torn grass in his direction upon arrival.

“Why did you stop?” the other hedgehog asked, looking around. Shadow sensed an increase in his breathing and heart rate, although it would have been unnoticeable by any observer that lacked the hybrid’s acute perception skills. Being able to go toe to toe with Shadow without a single gasp for air? Fairly impressive.

“I’m done here,” he answered casually. Around them there was only a sea of deep green grass and the sound of the waves crashing against the cliffs. His ear comm buzzed;  _ anytime, now _ , he thought.

“Done with what?” Sonic tensed, closing his fists. The sea breeze swayed his red and white scarf and his electric blue quills and Shadow allowed himself a moment of observation. It was, after all, his first encounter with one of his kind… even if the term could only be applied loosely. The black half-alien prided himself in being unlike any other, but he recognized a special spark in his new acquaintance too. Ruby and emerald eyes remained locked on each other for an indefinite amount of time, measuring.

_ Beep beep. _

Taking some steps backward slowly, Shadow made a light bow. “It’s been a pleasure beating you in a race, Mr Second Fastest Thing Alive,” he said with a note of amusement. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I must go.” His heel 

“You caught me by surprise! I could beat you anytime, fair and square.” Sonic was unable to ignore the bait, but he went back on track immediately. “What are you after?” A white glove pointed an accusatory finger at Shadow.

“You’ll know soon enough.” And Shadow jumped off the edge of the cliff, reappearing in a very disconcerted Sonic’s field of view standing on the top of one of the robot probes deployed by Maria from the Air Fortress. The machine whirred as it hovered above the grassy cliff. 

“Until next time, Sonic the hedgehog.”

The robot and its passenger flew up and away from the ground, until they were nothing more than a blurry silhouette against the cloudy sky.

════ ⋆★⋆ ════

“Sonic, will you please calm down? You’re going to burn a hole in the carpet.”

Tails’ voice did little to soothe the blue hedgehog, who was slouching on the couch, tapping his foot on the floor with a slight frown engraved in his usually nonchalant features.

“I’m calm!” he argued. “Why is it taking you so long to locate one guy?”

“It’s not just ‘one guy’ we’re looking for.” Tails pointed at the small square screen he had in front of him, showing a bunch of tech jargon Sonic couldn’t bother trying to understand. He kind of understood maps, though, and the one at the corner was blinking with dozens of small red dots that seemed to move across it. “For all we know, it’s a whole army that just descended from that satellite, look at all those robot probes.” The golden fox furled his brow. “How did such a huge space station remain hidden…? I wonder how long it has been orbiting our atmosphere.”

“Tails, focus. What we need to know is where their base or bases on Earth are, so we can blow’ em up.”

“You’re getting ahead of yourself. We don’t know what their intentions are yet.”

“Right,” Tails could hear Sonic roll his eyes to the very back of his skull, “because  _ surely  _ the swarm of robot probes from space has come in peace…”

His little brother’s deep sigh warned Sonic not to push it. Instead, he threw his head back on the couch and stared at the spotless white ceiling. Plain, boring. Like everyday life after Eggman had gone into retirement.

After several months had passed without any sighting of the Doctor’s havoc-wreaking inventions, they finally accepted Eggman  _ might  _ have truly stepped down from the evil-doing business after all, and it had been great news for everyone, right? No more giant metal beasts tearing down the walls of government facilities, no awakened ancient deities threatening to flood the place, no more being on the lookout for some Chaos emerald-powered scheme of world domination. That could be nothing but stellar news to anyone reasonable. Amy had gone on to open that pastry shop in partnership with Miss Vanilla  — and offered tarot readings in the backroom  —, Knux enjoyed his days gazing at the clouds while leaning comfortably against the cold surface of the Master Emerald, Tails was so busy with his inventions that some days the blue hedgehog had to remind him to have a break to munch on something or else he’d g to sleep without a bite… And then there was him. Running to and fro, leaving a blazing trail of burnt grass across endless fields, taking naps under the full moon in some distant corner of the world. A different place every night. Until you had seen them all, that is. Novelty stopped being novelty when it became routine; friendly faces greeting him had started to look the same whenever he went, and he had ended up back where he started. Just chillin’, as he liked to say. And it wasn’t bad, and he was rightly grateful for his friends and what he had. But sometimes… sometimes.

Of course he’d never shared his true feelings with anyone nor would he, in fear, or rather, certainty, that they wouldn’t understand. How could they? Even he was aware of how mindless it was to simply lust for danger. Yes, he had put his own life on the line more times he could count them, felt the adrenaline rush, that primal instinct of survival kicking in during every fight. Yes, he had sustained severe injuries that had taken him weeks before he was fully recovered, he had saved umpteen people from being smashed by metal limbs and drowned out fires creating small tornadoes of sand and air by means of his own fast-moving feet that had left him with scars that were still tangible under his fur. And yes, the reckless blue hero had enjoyed every second of it.

So Sonic had been hiding what was a genuine brawling abstinence syndrome for almost a year. Who could have blamed him for being a little restless now that a potential new challenge had arisen?

Knuckles entered the room, interrupting Sonic’s rushed trail of thought, with a loud crash of something made of metal being dropped on the carpet. “Permission,” said the echidna, making Tails press his lips to an invisibly tight line.

“Couldn’t you have let that thing outside?” the young fox anguished.

“I thought you’d like to have a look at it,” Knuckles shrugged. “I found it hovering around the outskirts of town and I punched it to the ground.”

“Did it try to attack you?”

“No. I don’t know. It didn’t have the time, I suppose? I got to it first.”

Tails ignored Sonic’s exaggerated nodding and, while he and Knuckles bumped fists, the inventor focused on the pile of twisted iron. Upon closer inspection, it turned out it wasn’t in such a bad shape, which was either a result of a sudden affinity for self-restraint on Knuckles’ part or the use of a highly durable material. Tails leaned towards the latter. Feeling the robot’s dents and bumps, buttons and hanging wires under his paws, he came to a conclusion.

“This is like nothing I’ve seen before. Look at this,” he pointed, “It seems to be mostly carbon fiber, which has a very high strength to weight ratio. Its non metallic nature makes it less liable to alteration by magnetic fields, electric currents… There’s also aluminium composite and some titanium alloy, although I’d have to check to be sure…”

He turned around to check on Sonic and Knuckles, who were wearing the very expression he had expected them to.

“What I mean is it’s way more advanced than whatever Eggman has been building. It’s space technology, after all. But I think I could try to repair it. I’m curious about its software.”

The red and blue duo exchanged a glance and agreed to leave the younger of the three to his affairs, knowing they wouldn’t be of much help around his workshop.

It was almost evening when they came back and found the fox knee-deep in robot parts, screws and wires. He greeted them with a tired smile and began to explain everything with renewed enthusiasm after he gulped down the mint & chocolate milkshake they had brought him.

“Have you managed to fix it?”

“Good as new. Its structure is fascinating. You could almost call it rudimentary in certain places, but in reality its simplicity is what makes it so impressive. It’s almost elegant.”

Sonic waved at Tails, sparing a gaze to his namesakes, worried that he might start levitating. The kid could get real passionate about his high tech mumbo jumbo and, come the point where he sounded like an infatuated teen, Sonic found it borderline freaky.

“And did you get anything out of it? Any info?”

“It’s heavily encrypted,” Tails shook his head. “I’d probably need help to crack the code  — or a very impractical amount of time. But what I’ve done  — ” he tapped the bottom part of the probe with a satisfied grin, “is place a tracker on it.”

“That way we can release it and follow it to its base! You’re a genius, little bro.” Sonic ruffled Tail’s bangs, a gesture the fox received with a proud expression and a light pink blush.

“Can we count on you for the big event, Knuckles?” asked Tails.

“I’m not sure. I’d rather go back to Angel Island,” the bright echidna scratched his muzzle, quite ineffectively considering the thick gloves he was wearing.

“Oh, come on, Knux. Nothing’s going to happen if you’re a couple of hours later than usual.”

“That damn bat could show her ugly face any second. I have to be ready.”

Sonic raised an eyebrow and started pushing his friend towards the door. “Riiiiight. Wouldn’t wanna ruin your  _ date, _ so we’ll excuse you this one time.”

Somehow, Knuckles went redder.

“Besides, you can fly and join us any time. If you’re not too exhausted, that is…”

“Glide!! What I do is glide!! And it’s  _ not  _ a d-”

The door closed with a loud thud and Sonic and Tails shared a brief fit of laughter at the expense of a seething Knuckles, who could still be heard rambling outside.

“Anyway, let’s get down to business, pal.”

Once placed outside and duly activated, the probe bot’s pilot lights blinked red several times before its engine started whirring and buzzing. The fox and the hedgehog had chosen to observe from a safe distance, crouching behind a nearby bench. The blue blur was, again, tapping his foot on the ground with a frenzy akin to that of a hamster that had overdosed on caffeine, threatening to make Tails lose his nerve. But eventually the robot took off, and he felt his friend’s tension defuse.

It wasn’t until the machine was many feet above the ground, getting smaller in the distance, when they came out of their hiding spot and celebrated their upcoming victory with a high five. Tails checked the smart watch on his wrist, making it display a small holographic map that showed the location of the tweaked robot.

“I’ll contact you when I estimate it has reached its base,” he said, before seeing Sonic disappear in a lightning-like dash. He didn’t mention how he had noticed the blue speedster looked happier than he had seen him in weeks, nor that the implications of his current high spirits also worried him a bit. The fox bit down his lower lip. He should have been braver, should’ve asked him whether he was adjusting well to their new, uneventful daily life; instead, he had stayed quiet, embarrassingly afraid of the answer. He dreaded having his belief of being a disappointingly boring, dull little brother proven right, or their meetings having become a chore for the quilled hero when there were no new adventures to justify them. Tails knew all of those were dead wrong but that didn’t stop the pervading ideas from elbowing their way into his insecure core every now and then. He brushed them aside and focused on the code he had obtained from the space robot, keeping an eye on the blinking dot on the map that was tracking it. A time for coming clean would come, eventually.

Later, at night, he was startled out of his sleep by a loud beeping. He rubbed his eyes and squinted at the monitor before letting out a pleased sniffle.

“Gotcha.”

•·······◥◈◤·······•

Shadow exited the sterilisation chamber, trying to shake the humidity off his quills with only mild success, and headed for the Air Unit’s control room with droplets of water scattered all over his dark fur. He hated the smell of the disinfectant chemicals, so he always spent some time washing the remains off under the shower. He had come back from a second scouting run after the floating fortress had been set up at the designated point and its cloaking module had been activated, to check that everything was in order.

It was already sunset, and he found Maria sitting in front of the control panels, but staring out the enormous reinforced glass window instead. He simply walked up to her and stayed silent. The orange light bathed the ondulated landscape and reflected on the rivers and ponds below. It was so different to the blue hue the Earth always had when seen from orbit, a combination of warm colours that bled down the horizon and seemed to seep into the soil and set it ablaze. It far exceeded the scarce satellite pictures they had seen, and everything they could have pictured in their minds.

“Beautiful, isn’t it?” she said upon noticing his arrival. Shadow simply nodded. Stringing words together wasn’t among his many strengths. The blonde young woman turned to face him.

“What can you tell me about your first encounter with an Earth native?”

The black hedgehog shrugged, but Maria, far from satisfied with such an answer, pinched his side playfully. “Come on, spit it out.”

“He was strong, I suppose.”

“Strong.”

“And fast.”

“How so?”

“Almost as much as me. And I felt chaos energy swirling around him.”

Maria traced her chin with the back of her black glove. “And the others? Do you perceive them as a potential threat?”

“I didn’t have enough time to analyse, but I’d say no. They weren’t hostile, just… cautious.”

The scientist leaned back on her seat. “I see. If they’re clever, they’ll simply steer out of our way and refrain from meddling.”

_ I wouldn’t count on that _ , Shadow thought to himself. He remembered the race against his bright blue opponent. He didn’t purport to be the best judge of character but, from his short meeting with the earthly hedgehog , Shadow gathered he hadn’t seen the last of him yet. He brushed the reflection aside, however. There was something way more important to focus on.

“Well…” he tapped his claw on the back of Maria’s chair.

“What?”

He didn’t let her casual bearing trick him. “You know what.”

With a firm turn of his wrist, he made the chair spin on its wheels so the girl had no choice but to face his crimson eyes, now gleaming with impishness, with hers, hidden behind her goggles. “Don’t tell me you’re going to chicken out now,  _ Doctor _ …”

A fiery blush reddened Maria’s face. “I’m not chickening out! I just… need some time, I have to do some adjustments to my -”

Her thread of excuses was quickly cut short when the ultimate lifeform scooped her out of the chair and, carrying her in his arms, skated their way out of the control room and through the building’s corridors, unbothered by her complaints and fruitless attempts to break free from his grip. 

_ [GAMEPLAY: Metal Module] A short level in which Shadow carries Maria in his arms with a timer on. If the timer reaches 0, Maria will wriggle out of his grasp and run away. Level consists of dodging robots and avoiding obstacles that hinder Shadow’s advance through the Air Fortress. _

Only when they arrived at one of the many storage modules did Shadow finally stop and place her gently on the floor. Maria straightened her lab coat with an overdramatic hassle.

“You’re a little pest, you know that?” she complained, but followed him into the room anyway. It barely took Shadow a moment to locate what he was looking for, embedded in a dust-covered velvety box.

The translucent crystal glowed softly in pulses that seemed to mimic the dark hedgehog’s own steady heartbeat.

“Is that…?”

“Gerald’s synthetic Emerald,” he confirmed Maria’s suspicion. “Here on Earth, I should be able to better harness its energy.”

Before the girl could utter another word, Shadow grabbed her hand and held the Emerald high.

“Chaos control!”

The room around them vanished in a flash of green light.

Two figures materialized in the midst of a green scenery that the dying sun had dyed golden. Shadow hurried to support Maria’s weight, as her knees struggled to do so effectively after the warp. Her hands were subtly shaking.

“Are you alright?” he asked. His question was met by a curt nod. She stood up and took a deep breath, looking around.

They had appeared on the shore of a lake surrounded by tall grass and framed between rows of low mountains, not a single man-made structure in sight except for a wooden dock and a couple of rowing boats tied to it. A light breeze swayed the grass blades and created tiny ripples on the surface of the lake, and wherever their eyes lingered there was hot orange, pink and shades of a deep blue.

A small, hesitant hand reached for the red goggles and took them off, and Maria’s eyes teared up in response to the unfiltered radiance of her surroundings. Blinking several times, she inhaled deep and slow, taking everything in  — the whisper of the waves lapping at the lake’s sandy shore, the rustle of the wind between the foliage, the faraway flutter of bird wings taking off. Even the delicate warmth of the last sun rays on her cheeks, just about to disappear behind the silhouette of one of the mountaintops. All of it, rich, entrancing and new. Maria let herself fall to the soft ground, near the shore, and stared at the water with intent. Shadow observed how she reached for the surface, without getting to actually touch it. She removed her right glove and stuck it into her back pocket. So that was it.

Pale fingers broke the water’s surface tension and fiddled with the waving algae, dug into the bottom sand and emerged only to see it slip through them.

Not wanting to interrupt, Shadow sat by her, ever watchful of her actions. Maria took off the other glove and sunk both hands in the water, with renewed energy this time. Her laughter rang in Shadow’s ears like a melody played by crystal bells, an echo of simpler times gone by, when they were both young and naive. Enthralled by the sudden wistfulness, the ultimate lifeform failed to notice a treacherous movement at his side, and soon found himself soaked by a splash of freshwater.

Unwilling to let the affront go unpunished, Shadow cupped a ball of wet algae in his hand and threw it full force at Maria’s face, who jumped in place and let out a gasp of offense. The full-on war that followed left the two former space dwellers drenched, fur and hair flat and dripping when they finally laid down on the wooden pier. The king star was gone, leaving way for his retinue of lesser siblings to flicker against the dark sky. It was such a view, the spiral arm of the Milky Way painting a pathway across the night, and every other bright dot seemingly following. Shadow and Maria knew all of them by heart, the kind of knowledge that came naturally with having spent over fifty years in a space station, but seeing them outlined by the imaginary bounds of the Earth’s sky dome was an experience well beyond anything they had imagined. No longer pitted against the unforgiving pitch black vacuum of space but softened by the fuzzy filter of the atmosphere instead, the stars felt way less cold, almost a welcoming parade displayed before them, for them.

“I’m glad you dragged me out here, Shadow,” Maria spoke in a hushed tone. She had undone her usual pigtails so her hair would dry out faster, and the blue ribbons that she used to hold them in place were tied around her wrist, one of them, and Shadow’s, the other. Her pale skin almost seemed to glow in the dark.  _ She  _ seemed to glow, something warm burning peacefully within.

“I knew you needed a little push,” he replied.

They stayed like that for a good while, with their fingers interlaced and resting on the humid grass, until Maria fell into a placid sleep and Shadow took the chance to use Chaos Control and return to their floating base.

•·······◥◈◤·······•

“I have found something interesting,” Maria said, pushing her chair away from the control panel with the heel of her boot so Shadow could come closer more easily. The hedgehog obliged, walking up to the massive collection of both physical and holographic screens on the wall in front of him. Following the pressing of a button on the arm of Maria’s seat, each screen started playing a piece of a bigger image, displayed whole by the ensemble of them all. It depicted a flooded city, skyscrapers being subjected by colossal wave after colossal wave crashing against their foundations and glass surface. Only they weren’t natural waves. The furious currents of water rose and twisted and joined in a gigantic flowing column crowned by a monstrous head with reptilian eyes and a ghastly mouth that hung open, lower jaw unhinged from its joint like that of a snake. It was a frightful sight to behold, if only for the sheer size of the creature, and the destruction its watery appendages wreaked with their every contraction.

Maria’s gloved index finger pointed at a yellow glowing dot flying around the monster at astonishing speed. In fact, the human eye could only trace its movement after the footage was considerably slowed down. Shadow followed it intently as it seemed to hit the water serpent time and time again, dodging its tentacles and the street furniture and vehicles thrown at it by the swirling waves.

“Your blue friend there is hailed as a hero. He defeated an ancient God, Perfect Chaos, as they called him,” Maria sniffled. “Not that perfect if a rodent managed to beat it, if you ask me. Either the monster wasn’t really that powerful despite its looks, or there is a lot more to that spiky thing than meets the eye.”

“An ancient God?” Shadow placed his hands on the console, red eyes wide with disbelief, still fixed at the lightning bolt of energy on the screen. He didn’t even bother correcting Maria’s liberal use of the word ‘friend’.

“But there’s more. Guess who awakened such a formidable beast…”

Without delay, Maria changed the screens to a bunch of different tabs containing all sorts of documents; files with G.U.N.’s classified logo printed on top, blueprints for strange machines, and a set of pictures that looked oddly familiar….

“Is that-” the black hedgehog began.

“Doctor Ivo Robotnik. Robotics extraordinaire, convicted criminal and evil mastermind, and now retired, as it would seem. Nobody has seen him since the incident with Perfect Chaos.”

Shadow’s eyes narrowed. This so-called doctor  — his resemblance to Gerald was uncanny. Even without the dead give away that was his surname, anyone could have pointed that the same blood ran through their veins. He could easily imagine Gerald sporting that bright chestnut moustache before it had turned grey. Something sat heavy at the pit of the hedgehog’s stomach; seeing that strange version of his creator was at the same time heartwarming and unsettling.

“So something else of his lived on here on Earth, after all…” he uttered. If Maria heard those words, she didn’t acknowledge them.

“From what I’ve gathered from different sources, he was bent on world domination, but he took every wrong approach to it. He failed, and made an awful mess in the process,” the deceitfully young-looking woman stated in a cold tone. “But we won’t make those mistakes.”

Her voice echoed with a tint of bitterness and rested on the room’s dense atmosphere. It wasn’t often Maria that sounded so much like her real age, even older, and Shadow would never say it out loud but those rare occasions managed to disquiet him. He mentally scolded himself. As much as it had felt like it, time hadn’t stopped during all those years aboard the A.R.K., just the two of them alone, orbiting the Earth and its sun all the same. Their bodies hadn’t aged, and one might have thought their minds either, for what room was there for development inside the stagnant metal compound? Truth was, the course of the decades hadn’t spared Maria’s still very human soul and no matter how fervidly Shadow tried to latch onto the girl’s naive core, it was merely an afterimage. Maria couldn’t remain a child forever, nor was it alright for Shadow to secretly wish for it, and he knew. He shook his head and decided to dispel some of the strain that had clouded the control room.

“How can you be so sure?”

Maria looked at Shadow inquisitively.

“After all, he might be a  _ real _ , graduated doctor…”, he simply deadpanned.

It took her a few seconds to recognize Shadow’s poke at her lack of a formal, legally-binding title, and she proceeded to throw a soft punch at his shoulder.

All of a sudden, a red pilot light began to flicker and there was a short series of beeps.

“ _ INTRUDER ALERT, INTRUDER ALERT. BREACHING OF THE AIR UNIT’S AIRSPACE ON SECTOR 9 DETECTED _ ,” the AI announced, startling both occupants of the room. The security cameras all around the air fortress connected automatically to the control panel screens, showing a flying object approaching the floating station at high speed. A zoom in revealed a fairly small aircraft that was painted silver and blue. And standing on it in an absurdly reckless way, red and white scarf waving behind him…

“It can’t be,” muttered Shadow in disbelief.

Maria leaned forward. Her vinyl gloves squeaked as she joined them together in a mischievous gesture. “My, my. How have they found us, I wonder?”

She sounded genuinely impressed, and Shadow saw a spark of interest beam up behind her intelligent blue eyes. For a fleeting moment, he thought of the floating base’s defense system, a collection of gunnery that would have made many armies jealous. But surely Maria would never think of using it against such a non-threat.

“Are we going to try and repel them?” he asked nonetheless. There were many harmless ways in which to accomplish that feat: plasma shields, smoke machines and the sheer impenetrability of the facility’s gates, dampers and valves when closed. What was more, they had no reason to believe that the aspiring trespassers had even discovered the true structure of the base under the cover of its cloaking device.

“Why would we?” asked Maria. Her pigtails swirled around her as she turned to Shadow. “We’re here to help the world and we’ll have to make it known sooner or later. This occasion to do so is just as good as any other. It’s a small group, we will have a civil conversation. Besides, their plane doesn’t look like it’s carrying heavy weaponry, and you said these earthlings were no match for you, right?”

Not being able to voice his doubts in a way that didn’t also fall into Maria’s trap of making him admit he wasn’t, indeed, all-powerful, Shadow fell silent and annoyance drew itself all over his face in a frown that never failed to make the girl laugh.  _ There you are, brooding again _ , she would often make fun of his resting angsty face. The contrast it made with Maria’s roguish, joyous look was a sight to behold.

“If they come near any of the main gates with clear intent, I’ll assume they know our exact position and allow them in.”

“You’re far too thrilled for this,” he snorted.

Maria said nothing in response. She pulled her red goggles up and started disabling the base’s security systems as her smirk widened.

════ ⋆★⋆ ════

The Tornado landed without a scratch inside the hangar whose gates had slided open as the plane was flying past them without any encounters with guardian robots, cannons or a single warning of retreat, after the gargantuan building had its reflective shields removed and its shape had materialized right before their eyes. Weird.

The gates had also remained open behind Sonic, Knuckles, Tails and Amy right after their feet had touched the metal floor, instead of blocking their possible route of escape like they had very logically expected. Also very weird.

“It’s as if we’re not being either lured nor trapped,” Tails whispered in a shaky voice. “It’s like we’re-”

“ _ DEAR GUESTS. _ ”

An artificial-sounding greeting startled the lot, reverberating through the hangar from some speaker that none of them could spot.

“ _ THE BLUE-LIT PATH WILL GUIDE YOU TO THE MEETING ROOM. PLEASE DO NOT STRAY FROM THE PATH. EVERY OTHER CHAMBER HAS BEEN LOCKED AND SECURED. _ ”

Exchanging wary glances, the group ventured out of the hangar through a lit arch and found that there was, in fact, only one pristine white and silver hallway illuminated by sets of bright blue lights on the ground and on the ceiling, glowing lines running above their heads.

“I’m starting to  _ not  _ like this,” Knuckles said way too loud for the eerie quietness of the insides of the fortress.

“Not every robotic engineering extraordinaire has to have awful intentions,” argued Amy. “Or manners. I, for one, am glad that we haven’t been attacked by a horde of killer robots on the spot.”

“We haven’t even seen any. If that doesn't tip you off that something is very wrong…” Sonic’s emerald eyes darted from a dim corner of the corridor maze to another. The clash of metal against powerful fists, the blaring drill of his spin dash attack, the robots’ buzzing, aluminium being crushed under an absurdly big hammer and explosions, all of it he could handle; absolute, hair-rising stillness, not so much. It tingled his every sense the wrong way, paradoxically  — eyes and ears looking for something that was clearly not there for him to perceive. The blue hero had entered a state he could have described as hyper-alertness because it was what his body was begging for: being ready for any and all contingency that was lurking in the shadows of the floating fortress, waiting. His back quills raised and stiffened with anticipation.

The illuminated corridor came to a broadening, a crossroads between six different hallways that branched further away from sight, each one identical to the next. In front of the confluence of all of them there was a white gate striped with wires and engravings signalling its juncture points and pieces. It was about five or six Sonics tall, and so wide the four cautious visitors were able to cross it without breaking line once it opened with a hiss and the whirring of the sliding mechanisms.

It revealed a bright white room built in the same minimalistic fashion that matched the rest of the base's interior so far, and was furnished rather scarcely. A round white rug padded its center. Over it and arranged in a cross shape, facing each other, four ample black couches that may have looked futuristic back in the sixties, maybe, sleek and with metal legs. An impractically small glass table sat in the center with only an empty vase on it. If there had ever been a living thing inside of it, there wasn't a trace.

Opposing the entrance door there was a huge window. Its poligonal shutters were open and a sea of clouds and cold sunlight could be seen from the room. The couch in front of it was occupied by a slim figure. She was sitting with her legs crossed at her ankles, both sheathed in shiny black thigh-high boots seemingly made of the same material as her gloves, joined gracefully over her lap. Blue straps with golden buckles kept her lab coat buttoned up and in place, and her blonde hair was pulled into two messy low pigtails that gave her a quite particular silhouette. But what Sonic found unsettling was that her eyes were invisible behind glass goggles, round and red, that rendered her expression unreadable.

And most of all, Sonic's gaze was immediately drawn to an already familiar figure. Shadow, as he had introduced himself the day before, was standing right behind the young woman, arms crossed in front of his fur-collared chest. He wasn't wearing the skin-tight outfit Sonic had met him in, and his fur shone midnight blue under the cold lights.

"Have a seat," the blonde girl made a gesture. "Make yourselves comfortable," she smiled, a gesture that didn’t manage to ease Sonic into a more relaxed stance.

The four visitors sat down and waited for her to speak again, taken aback by the turn of the events. Usually, a surprise raid on a roboticized floating air base would have given way to a thunderous fight very soon, not an invitation to a tea salon. Eggman’s lairs were always rusty, trails and puddles of oil across every chamber, hallway and storage room; this one was clean as a whistle and there was definitely an alien feel to it, like it didn't truly belong to the world they knew. The blue hedgehog noticed the temperature was almost chilly, several degrees colder than on the outside. Sonic’s ears twitched. Some background music was playing so faintly it was only noticeable when the melody hit certain notes, an old song that sounded vaguely familiar.

“Oh, right, I forgot! May I offer you something to drink?”

Before the guests could either accept or refuse, she seemingly addressed someone else, by the different tone of her voice, and ordered that a refreshment was brought to the room. 

Shortly after, a small sliding door opened at one side of the room and an automated wheeled tray carrying six glasses, an ice bucket and two bottles of different size made its way to the couch where the red echidna was sitting. Knuckles glared at it. "No, thanks. I'll pass." The tray drove itself to where Amy and Tails were, and waited for the two of them to grab their glass and fill it with the liquid that they assumed was the safest one, the one that looked like water, before heading towards Sonic, only to be ignored. The blue hedgehog raised his voice — admittedly in a slightly higher pitch than he would have liked — without diverting his eyes from their strange hosts.

“My name is Sonic the hedgehog. These are Amy Rose, Tails and Knuckles,” he said, itching to get things going. The aforementioned acknowledged the introduction with small nods and thin-lipped smiles, a lot narrower than their host’s.

“This is Shadow  — if I’m not mistaken, you have already met.” The young woman pointed at the black and red hedgehog behind her.

“Pleasure,” he bowed his head slightly.

“My name is Maria Robotnik.”

The name felt like a splash of cold water on the visitors.

“Isn’t that…?”

Maria turned her face to Tails, who had just stuttered. “I believe you are acquainted with a relative of mine.”

The revelation, far from reverting Sonic to his carefree self, put him on guard.

“I knew it,” he stood up with a jump. “You’re up to no good, are you?” A white gloved finger rose in accusation. However, his sudden outburst of energy of his left the human and the hybrid hedgehog remarkably unfazed.

“Why, we’ve never met him,” was the answer he got. “We have no quarrel with your little group.”

Despite profoundly disliking the phrasing of Maria’s last sentence, he heeded Amy’s calming gestures and sat down again. It was Tails who dared break the following silence.

“Miss Robotnik, may I ask… where did you come from?” The fox’s two namesakes swayed, betraying the nervousness he had more or less successfully hidden behind his measured words. “We detected a space station descending into our orbit, one we didn’t have prior knowledge of. And all of this technology, these robots  — it’s unlike anything I’ve seen here.”  _ On Earth _ , he avoided adding.

The girl’s pigtails seemed to mimic the upwards curve of her rosy lips in excitement.

“Is that how you tracked this Air Unit’s position? By examining one of our probe bots?” she returned the question, making the copper-colored fox blush. But there was no animosity in her observation; rather, a sort of peer-to-peer recognition. “I’ll have to work on a program that can detect that kind of interference. Isn’t that nice, Shadow?” she turned her face to look at the black hedgehog, whose stare had been hopping from one guest to another without really stopping at any of them in particular. “We’ve already learned a valuable lesson from our visitors.”

Sonic glared at Tails, although aware that it wasn’t quite fair, for having given their enemy helpful knowledge that the blue hero really hoped they didn’t come to regret in the near future. His attention soon returned to his dark counterpart, who cocked his hip against the couch where Maria Robotnik was sitting.

“I think they have already learnt a couple of valuable lessons from us themselves,” he spoke slowly, pinning Sonic to his seat with his red gaze and what seemed to be the slightest glimpse of a smirk. Sonic felt his ears heat up with irritation.

“Cut it out and get to the point,” he said. “What’s your business here?”

His curtness made the black hedgehog bare his teeth.

“How dare you…” he growled, a rough grumble from deep down his throat that made Sonic’s little hairs rise.

“It’s alright, Shadow.”

The blonde girl straightened her back and pressed her lips into a thin line. She had raised her arm to stop Shadow from rushing up to Sonic and probably try to dismember him. It wasn’t until Shadow — his smug aura completely gone — gently squeezed her shoulder that she finally parted them again in a tone that couldn’t have been called anything other than solemn.

“This vessel is a part of the compound known as the Space Sanctuary, former Colony, A.R.K. Part of a series of government-funded projects to be held in the utmost secrecy.” She made a gesture at the automated tray robot, after which it rolled up to the nearest wall and, using a retractable metallic appendage, pressed a button nobody would have guessed was there in the first place. The white wall started displaying images of a gigantic round structure orbiting the blue planet. One could have easily mistaken it for the moon, or a smaller but equally natural satellite, weren’t it for the rays of tiny lights that crossed its surface here and there, revealing man-made structures.

>>“The series of experiments conducted by my late grandfather, Professor Gerald Robotnik, and his team ranged from biochemical research to high-tech weaponry, with a focus on the former. After his death,” her voice shook ever so slightly, it would have gone unnoticed by a listener less attentive than Sonic, “I took over his projects and continued developing them.”

More images of the space station flashed on the monitors, but Sonic was busy trying to analyze their host’s expression, to sniff out any hint of a lie. So far, the existence of a super advanced secret government base orbiting the Earth was nothing too out of the ordinary, compared to what Sonic and company were used to dealing with. However, something in the young doctor’s story rubbed him the wrong way. A tiny voice at the back of his head dared suggest that anything the odd pair did would rub Sonic the wrong way, really, whether they revealed their top secret scheme to be the adoption of every abandoned puppy on the planet’s surface or blowing up the moon. Sonic hushed it and kept listening, like the rest of his friends were doing, only without the keen curiosity drawn all over their faces. Why were they so enthralled by these space people? As if they hadn’t seen anything like it before. Well, perhaps they technically hadn’t, but… He repressed his urge to start tapping his foot on the floor and deliberately ignored the black hedgehog’s stare from across the room, which he could feel burning a hole into his skull.

“Now that we’re done with our mainline investigations, it was time for us to report our findings back to Earth,” the young woman finished. “Our communication systems are a bit obsolete and they aren’t that easy to repair, so we decided to come here in person. It was long overdue, anyway.”

That brought light to something Sonic had noted during their transit through the floating base but hadn’t really thought about until that moment  — as clean and immaculate as most surfaces were, the place felt old. Very old. He wondered how long it had been out in the cold vastness of space, just a bunch of people aboard, elbow-deep in who knows what kind of research. A bunch of white coats and a glorified, superpowered black lab rat, at that. He also wondered how old this Maria girl really was, although even the brazen speedster knew that wasn’t remotely a polite question to ask.

“So. You go to whoever paid your grandfather’s checks, show them your progress and you’re good to go, did I get it right?” he opted to say instead.

Shadow and the girl glanced at each other briefly.

“You could say so, yes.”

And yet, Sonic had the certainty there was so much more to be uncovered. It probably showed on his face — an open book, like Amy would often say — to the point the scientist felt compelled to add-

“Rest assured. Like I said before, we have nothing against you or your friends, Sonic the Hedgehog.”

“Right. Is there  _ someone else  _ on Earth you might happen to have a problem with, then?” the blue-furred hero asked back. Maria’s gentle smile wavered.

A pair of strange black, white and red boots walked up to the center of the meeting room.

“I think that’s enough,” Shadow’s husky voice rang in Sonic’s ears. “We open up our gates, we invite you in and you threaten us. How charming.”

“It’s not a threat,” he replied, “unless you earn it.”

The two hedgehog locked stares, emerald against ruby, analyzing, measuring. Unknowingly, they were being observed by a pair of sky blue eyes too, keen and hidden away by thick red glass goggles.

“I agree. It’s enough for today.”

A cheerful expression was plastered on Maria’s face once more, once that Sonic found far more unsettling than her previous ones. To what extent her image was distorted by his own preconceptions, he couldn’t really tell, and he didn’t care either.

“Do you mind seeing off our guests or should I call a bot?” the girl asked Shadow. It was a genuine question, not a veiled order like etiquette demanded on such occasions. The black hedgehog groaned.

“I’ll go with them, if only so they don’t try to poke their noses anywhere they’re not supposed to.”

The journey back to the hangar where they had left the Tornado went smoothly and uneventful. Shadow didn’t spare them a word that wasn’t strictly necessary to utter, such as  _ ‘right’  _ or  _ ‘left’  _ or ‘ _ don’t get near that wire, it’s high voltage _ ’, but his ears betrayed his curiosity, perking up whenever Sonic or one of their friends whispered something to one another.

When they reached the hangar, their escort bowed his head in a manner that reminded of a child forced to show off his piano skills to his parents’ friends.

“Be careful on your way down,” Shadow glanced at the Tornado with an arched eyebrow. “Wind currents can be strong at these heights.”

“Oh, this old thing is more durable than it looks!” Tails hurried to defend his precious invention, giving it an affectionate tap on the metal surface. His gesture set off a series of worrisome clinks and clanks that reverberated inside the battered aeroplane. Behind him, Amy bit into her lower lip.

While Knuckles helped the pink hedgehog up and Tails adjusted a few screws and bolts before starting the engine, Sonic threw one last look at the dark figure nearby. Before he realized what he was doing, he was addressing him again.

“Hey.” Black ears twitched. “Uh…” What did he want to say, again? “Tell your friend Doctor I’m sorry. For being rude an’ stuff.”

“You practically yelled at her.”

Sonic scratched the back of his neck, between his quills  — they weren’t stiff and pointy anymore. “What can I say, I’m a real charmer.” He heard a hiss. But he wouldn’t have the atmosphere get too friendly. These space dwellers hadn’t seen the last of him. He had to make his stance crystal clear.

“But know this — if you make the wrong move, I won’t hold anything back just because she was nice.”

Shadow’s eyes narrowed; under his eyelids, a glint of ruthlessness.

“Threaten her again and I’ll rip your vocal cords out of your throat. For starters.”

And without waiting for a response, the black hedgehog turned around and made his way through the exit door.

“Yeah, you can try! Good luck with that, idiot!” Sonic’s last rushed words overlapped with the whooshing sound of the door closing. “What a lapdog.”

“You could have been more diplomatic, Sonic,” Amy reproached him as he jumped onto the Tornado and the plane got ready for take off.

“I’m an open book, Amy, you said it once. I can’t hide how icky this all makes me feel.”

“That lady doctor was nothing but polite and friendly”, shouted Tails from the cockpit so they could hear him over the plane’s engine and the wind buzzin around them.

“That’s exactly what I’m talking about,” Sonic argued. “She was a tad  _ too  _ nice to us, complete strangers. And why is it only her and that striped weirdo up there? In a giant space station full of robots and who knows what kind of experiments? I’m not buying it. And how old is she anyway…? Not even a real doctor, I bet you. Eggman tried to pull that one too…”

Throughout the flight there was no convincing Sonic that nothing about Maria Robotnik and Shadow was any stranger than many other things they had seen before, and definitely nothing that hinted at a possible hidden evil scheme behind their somewhat amiable facade. How could his friends have become so blind all of a sudden? Humongous floating military base, check; shady origins that had only been vaguely explained, check. What about the girl’s silence when Sonic confronted her about the possible enemies she might have on Earth? Surely that would have been enough to make anyone suspicious of the newly arrived pair. But even Knuckles, who tended to distrust strangers, saw no reason for them to lose sleep over the matter.

“Sonic,” the heavy-set echidna pleaded after landing his feet on the ground. “We’re all on the same page here. All i’m sayin’ is you’d better keep calm until you have a reason to snap at them. And if the moment comes, you can be sure we’ll all be there with you.”

“ _ If _ ?” A fiery red went up the blue hero’s face. He knew he shouldn’t get so worked up by all of it; he just couldn’t help the frustration of not being taken seriously. “By all means, lower your guards around the guys that showed up in a literal flying fortress from space with super advanced hi tech crap we’ve never seen the likes of! Meanwhile,  _ I  _ will keep an eye on them. In case they decide to stir up some trouble. Which they definitely will.

He folded his arms with a deep frown engraved in his features. His friends exchanged a series of telling looks he pretended not to see on purpose.

“I’m starting to think you  _ want  _ them to be trouble,” said Amy, her sweet voice now tougher.

“Pffft. Who, me? Why. Why would I-”

“So you can play hero again!”

Sonic’s anger melted off in an instant, washed over by a wave of cold realization.

“That’s not true…”

He felt the familiar weight of Knuckles hand on his shoulder, but avoided his purple eyes. If there was something he couldn’t bear at that point, it was those three pitiful stares directed at him.

“I know it’s been monotonous without Eggman around, but seeing evil lurking behind every corner will do you no good either.” He could tell Tails was trying his best not to patronize him. His little brother knew him so well, so he was steering the conversation in the direction that would hurt the hedgehog’s pride the least.

Recognizing his defeat, if only in appearance, Sonic threw his hands up in the air.

“Jeez, and I used to be the carefree one here…”

Brushing off Knuckles’ hand as gently as he could, he took some backwards steps, making the figurative distance between him and the rest of the group all the more evident and literal.

“Sonic…”

“It’s fine. I, uh. I get it.”

Taking a deep breath, he decided to do what he did best. What never failed to soothe him when too many thoughts nagged him.

“I’m going for a run. Catch you later.”

And he disappeared down the road nearby, leaving three worried silhouettes behind him in a cloud of dust and torn grass.

•·······◥◈◤·······•

Banks of clouds swam by the fortress, engulfing it, leaving the sky barely visible behind the window. Many years ago, Maria and he had fantasized about jumping into a really big, fluffy cloud, and grabbing the cotton-like substance with their hands to see what it tasted like. ‘Cream puffs’ was one of their highest-ranked guesses, although they reckoned candy floss or marshmallow might be more likely. But upon reaching them, they were nowhere as dense as they had looked from above  — it was essentially the same as being in a fog. Shadow hadn’t thought of it before, but now that he did, he felt a slight twinge of disappointment that he immediately banished to the back of his mind. Such childish ideas weren’t worth his time anymore.

He knew he’d find Maria in the same spot where he’d left her, only there was a new guest in the meeting room with her, one of their latest prototypes: a towering, two-meter high bot whose primary function was producing, storing and providing large quantities of energy wherever it was needed. A walking battery of sorts. It was wired to the device Maria had in her hands and was fiddling with it with a pensive look on her face.

“I’m back,” he announced, and sat on one of the couches, crossing his legs in a relaxed manner  — vastly different from his attitude during the visit. His presence wasn’t acknowledged until a couple of minutes passed and the figure in the lab coat parted her lips.

“You were right. Our blue self-declared adversary is loaded with Chaos energy. I’ve been able to analyze his signature; with this, we should be able to track him if we ever need to.”

“Good to know,” the hybrid hedgehog nodded casually, waiting for whatever was next — probably more interesting and, hopefully, unrelated to that spiky annoyance.

“It’s picking up more signals of a similar nature. Disordered, intermittent, but they are there. I think I’ll be able to adjust the radar to locate them soon.”

Shadow’s eyes widened. “The true Chaos Emeralds…?”

His surprised tone was met by a confident, mischievous smirk.

He had trained long hours with Gerald’s synthetic one, an imperfect artifact with frustratingly long refractory periods and a tendency to open cracks on its surface if overloaded. Just imagining what he might be capable of if he got a hold of the real thing sent a shiver down his spine and to the end of his fingertips.

As if reading his very thoughts, Maria added:

“We have to make sure they don’t fall into the wrong hands. I bet G.U.N. is already looking for them, if not in possession of one or more. By now they must know we have arrived, too. They won’t leave anything to chance this time. They’ll want to have everything under control.”

Black and red fists closed inside white gloves. “They have no idea what they’re going up against this time.”

“And they will remain clueless,” Maria said sharply, “for as long as we can hide our true strength. For now, we will focus on collecting the gems as discreetly as possible, and also…” she fell silent.

Maria removed her red goggles, allowing her gentle blue eyes to look into Shadow’s. Clean as ever, her gaze made him remember the precious, pure heart beneath the stark white lab coat and the bitterness that sometimes resurfaced to her otherwise beautiful features.

“We should enjoy ourselves on Earth. We’re here, at last. We made it.”

She opened her arms and before he knew it he was there, embracing her. She buried her face into his white chest fur. How long had it been since they’d held each other like that? The warmth and comfort of the gesture never failed to erase every trace of worry from his mind. It was soothing, like a wordless lullaby. For some reason, that nightmare came to his mind, the one where Maria died. Her gunshot wound splattered all over his vision and he held her tighter.

“We made it,” he hummed in return.

The blood in his dreams, that cocky blue hedgehog, the disappointingly flavourless clouds. He let all of it disappear, lost in the scent of Maria’s blonde hair. As long as they had each other, it would be enough. As long as they were together, even if the whole world tried to oppose them, they wouldn’t falter. 

  
  



End file.
